gbhrps

To free up the slider pins (and you must get the old ones out to either clean them up or replace them, or you'll need to replace the caliper as well as get new pins), use PB Blaster or WD40 or similar and give them a good soaking. Try rapping them out over the open jaws of a vice (set open enough to permit the pin to go through the jaws, but closed enough to support the caliper casting. Obviously the caliper will have to be removed from the car, and be careful not to shatter the casting of the caliper or deform the pin's shape. You might be able to turn them out using a pair of vice grips, being carefull not to score the pin's sliding section. Once out clean the pins on a bench grinder with a wire wheel. More WD40 in the pin bore of the caliper with 0000 steel wool, and depending on the amount of corrosion damage, you might be able to reuse everything. Obviously, if in doubt, don't reuse anything. Buy new or remanufactured calipers. When reinstalling the pins, use liberal amounts of silicone grease/high temp grease for this use/anti-seize compound. Then get on a twice yearly DIY brake cleanup and relube to prevent the issue in future. Good Luck!

I had a similar experience recently with one of my antique cars. Occasionally the brake lights would be on while it was parked in the garage. Stomp on the brake pedal and let off and the brake lights went out, only to go back on an hour or so later. After a month of this shenanigans and having to disconnect the battery after each run, I replaced the pressure operated brake switch, with $10 and 5 minutes work, and solved the problem. I don't know whether Subies have mechanical or pressure activated brake light switches (never had the need to check one) but if they use the pressure version, you might check it out if nothing else is evidently the problem.

RedLine MT90 is what you want. I discovered it 3 years ago on the TwinTurbo.net forum (1990-1996 Nissan 300zx owners). There are 100's of Z owners who had noisy trannies, and those that had gear grinding problems that simply disappeared or were dramatically improved after replacing the gear fluid with the MT 90. When I first got my 1954 MG the tranny was a bear to shift and noisy to the point that I gave thought to rebuilding it. After finding the acclaims on the 300ZX forum about it, I decided to drain the MG tranny and give it a try. The tranny now (it is after all 53 year old technology) makes no noise at all, is much easier to shift, and I seldom grind a gear unless I hurry things. The specs on the bottle also say that it won't corrode bronze synchronizers, important on my old car but maybe not necessary on a more modern unit. No, I don't sell the stuff, but I am very pleased with the results it gave me.

Edrach, I've not had a look at the firewall of a disassembled Imprezza, but it almost looks like you have a leak in the cowl area. If you were to open the hood and remove all of the plastic grills and covers (you might have to take off the wiper arms first) you might find that some sealant is missing in the seam areas where the water is supposed to drain. Baring that there may be a gasket where the heater assembly draws its air in through the firewall/cowl that isn't doing its job or its fasteners have vibrated loose letting water in past the gasket.

Yes, it is time consuming, but the alternative is to pay a body shop to do the same thing at $50 an hour or more.

I assume that your headliner is dry because you either don't have any leaks from the sunroof or you don't have a sunroof at all. That said the only place the water can come into the front floor mats is through the front windshield sealing or the door seals. To determine how the water is getting in requires someonreto pull back the carpets and kickpanels from both front areas. Then get into the car with a flashlight and close the doors . Then have someone outside of the car run a garden hose with the water under moderate pressure start up the front door crease from the bottom near the rocker panel. They should pause from time to time slowly going up the crease until they get to the driver's side glass and continue up slowly until the roof. All of the time the person inside the car is watching for water leakage inside of the car. Do the same on the passenger side of the car. Then starting at the driver's side of the lowest side corner of the windshield , slowly go up the A pillar and along the top of the windshield to the centre. Again do the same procedure on the passenger side of the car. Somewhere you will find the area where the water is gettting in and know whether you need new weatherstripping or the windshield pulled and resealed. And if you have a sunroof and its draintubes are leaking inside the front A pillars, you can do the same hose procedures starting on the lowest parts of the A pillar and slowly rising up and along the sides of the sunroof. Good luck!

Tire width makes a huge difference with AWD as well. My old 97 OBW had stock sized 205 (I think that's correct?) Blizzak snowtires and just whaled through the snow and ice like crazy. It was unstoppable. Then I trade up to an 02 OBW with 225 Blizzak snowtires and at the same speeds as the old car I was all over the road, almost as if the wider tires were riding up on top of the snow aquaplaning. I'm going to the narrowest snowtires that will fit the 17 inch rims of my latest 07 OBW this winter for sure. Just look at the width of the snow tires that the ralley cars use and you'll see what I mean.

Tire width makes a huge difference with AWD as well. My old 97 OBW had stock sized 205 (I think that's correct?) Blizzak snowtires and just whaled through the snow and ice like crazy. It was unstoppable. Then I trade up to an 02 OBW with 225 Blizzak snowtires and at the same speeds as the old car I was all over the road, almost as if the wider tires were riding up on top of the snow aquaplaning. I'm going to the narrowest snowtires that will fit the 17 inch rims of my latest 07 OBW this winter for sure.

Delli50, I see that you're from a little farther north than me, but still in the land of salt on the winter roads of Ontario. I've seen the same thing you are experiencing and it finally revealed itself as a slightly sticking piston on the one side of the car. It didn't grab enough to squeal or pull the car to one side, but it didn't release enough when you took your foot off of the brake pedal and the pad wore quickly from constantly rubbing against the rotor. When I popped out the pistons from the calipers, that one side was moderately corroded from water in the brake fluid, much more than the other side. Cleaning the pistons with 0000 steel wool, doing the same to the caliper bores, a good flushing with fresh brake fluid, reinstalling everything and bleeding the entire system with fresh brake fluid sloved the problem. I'm now on a 48 month schedule of brake fluid flush and rebleeding on all of my vehicles. Just a thought. Good luck!

Just a comment on size. Get a narrow sized tire to prevent the tires from riding up on top of the snow at speed. As I recall, my 97 OBW had 195 winter tires and they allowed me to drive in snow at speed with no white-knuckled experiences. My 02 OBW had much wider 225's and I can't get anywhere near the same speed levels. These wider tires seem to ride up on top of the snow, almost like water planing. I can't wait to wear them out and then go to as narrow a size as the wheel rim will allow.

Steves72, I have been where you are now with my last 02 OBW. Same symptoms, same problem. The solution was a new drive assembly for the front tilt roof section, as the parts that drive the scissors are made of plastic, and once stripped or broken, it has to be replaced as an assembly. It has 2 tubes that hold the drive cable for the tilt scissors, and they run from opposite sides of the car side by side. As the cable gears pass each other going in opposite directions they lift up on the back of the front sunroof and hold it up. With one or both gear drives or their support parts broken the roof won't go up on its own. That entire front drive assembly was about $225 CDN as I recall (replaced it in 05). I suspect that your rear roof section works correctly, as mine did, and it requires no repairs. Now here's the bad news .... the headliner has to come out of the car to do the repairs, and although not hard to do, it does take time, and the repair bill climbs accordingly, particularly when you have to reinstall it afterwards. Someone who has done it before can remove the headliner and replace it in 3 hours or less. I wrote up the entire procedure about 2 years ago and posted it here. Search the archives under "Sunroof repairs" or similar, or maybe under my name and you should be able to find it. That said, once the headliner was out I took the car to the dealership, where they dropped the entire sunroof assembly( the front and rear in one piece) out of the car, made the parts repairs on the bench, tested it, and reinstalled the assembly into the car. Be sure to have them water test and road test for wind noise when they're done. In my case I had wind noise from the front sunroof that I was able to fix (they installed it too far to one side) when I got the car home, before I reinstalled the headliner. If you can't find the archive entry get back to us and I'll redo the procedure from memory. Good luck!

I have a factory bugshield on my 07 OBW that I installed myself. I can't see where you could have a problem with shutting the hood if its installed correctly. I'm not trying to be a smart a** here, trust me. The black metal U-shaped clip wraps around the black plastic spacer with just the short end of the metal clip on the underside of the hood edge. The plastic spacer and the top of the metal clip are supposed to be on the top of the hood. Then the screw goes through the acrylic deflector, the top of the metal clip and anchors into the plastic spacer. This all allows the bug shield to sit about a half inch above the hood. With just the short end of the matal clip going around the hood lip and then under the hood, there is no way for it to interfere with closing the hood. It almost sounds like you have the plastic spacer on the underside of the hood, and that most definitely would prevent the hood from closing. I hope this is of some help. If not, get back to us and I'll post a picture of one of the mounting points, or email one to you. Good Luck!

Had another thought. If the minor leak is through the headliner and comes out by the overhead reading lights, there was a TSB (forget the year) that traces the source to caulking of the sunroof opening. Where the steel roof is rolled down to create the sunroof opening and spot welded to the inner roof superstructure (this is on the sides of the sunroof opening and about 2 inches from the front) the factory was supposed to apply a caulking. In some cars this was left out, and on others it was applied. In either case, over time spider cracks occurred in the paint, not visible unless you look very closely and even then a magnifying glass was needed in some cases. What happens is that most water going past the seals of the sunroof made it into the drains but some was wicked into these fine cracks and over time made its way into the headliner draining at the overhead reading lights and sunroof switch. You never got a lot of water but several drips onto the seats especially when taking corners, and the reading light lenses always showed moisture on the insides. I fixed mine by thinly coating the rolled metal edge of the sunroof openings on the sides with a five minute epoxy. I then used touch up paint to hide the epoxy. As well I gave the headliner several days out of the car to dry out. My problem never again reppeared after that. hope this is of some help.

You might have a sticking brake pad on that one wheel. As they get older and corrosion and brake dust build up one or more of the pads can stick in place. Worse still you might have a sticking caliper on that wheel that isn't fully releasing the pads from the rotor, that pad has worn done, the wear indicator has fallen off or itself is making the noise you hear. I've even seen one where the pad material was gone completely, and yet the only noise you heard was when making a turn. Removing the wheel on that side of the car, as was suggested already, will soon let you know for sure. Good luck!

Within the last year or so you can buy tires that have all kinds of rubber colours running like bands through the tread. Ocassionally you'll see some tuner kid with them on in yellows, reds and even blues. It doesn't make a great deal of sense to me, but then again I'm over the hill and have been for several years. You don't have anything to worry about. Its just a design in the rubber and won't affect the tire in any way.

My last OBW, an 02, had the dual sunroof with the front tilt up section inoperative, so I dropped the headliner to save the dealership costs of removal and replacement. This is a time consuming job, but not outside the skills of even an average DIYer. And with the wagon, once the headliner is dropped it easily goes out the rear tailgate. That said, the draintubes are at the very ends of the sunroof tracks which just bolt to the roof superstructure. The front ones can be easily reached with an open sunroof, but the rear drains will be as far back as the is the width of the sunroof from front to rear. In a dual sunroof car there are actually 6 drains, with a set in the middle. I'm sure one could reach the front drains fairly easy, but the rear drains will require a coathanger probe at least 2 feet long and you'll be doing it blind. With the headliner dropped and out of the car, cleaning the drains is a snap. In fact, at least on my 02, the sunroof rail drain ends were plastic, as were the drain tubes. To prevent them coming loose I even put metal clamps on each one as insurance. Should you decide to go this route, check the archives for sunroof repairs as there is a step by step procedure for dropping the headliner. Good luck!

Your sunroof problems could be quite a few things. The switch may be bad, the motor may be burned out, the computer may be bad, the fuse, or the relay, if so equipped. After having pulled the dual sunroof out of my last OBW to fix the front sunroof's track, I can tell you that it can be time consuming and expensive. If you are handy and so inclined, I would suggest that you pull your headliner to get at the switch, the motor, and the computer if its located up there and not somewhere else. You may find a corroded or loose connection which is an easy fix. If not, I would try sourcing an entire sunroof and assorted switches, computer, etc., from a wrecker and do a complete swap. It is not rocket science to remove and replace the entire assembly, particularly when you have the headliner out and can see what is involved. After disconnecting the draintubes and unbolting the sunroof rails from the roof superstructure, the entire assembly comes out in one piece.

Each generation just keeps getting better and better. I love this 07 OBW, a leap over the 02 OBW I had before, and it was a quantum leap over the 97 OBW before it. Its been some years but I recall that the 97 automatic had only 4 issues in the 4 years I owned it. It developed a piston slap at about 23 000 km that never progressed to be very loud or annoying, or more of a problem. One rear wheel bearing went south under warranty, the leading edge of the hood started to bubble from rust trapped between its inner and outer skins in a small area, and common on many from that era, the bracket above the licence plate that holds the licence plate lights and the rear hatch release corroded badly because of poor rustroofing at the factory. That was it. It was a great car, other than each of the newer ones were so much better.

Congratulations on your new ride! You've come to the right place to share and learn from the rest of we Subie fanatics. Check the archives for clearing up the lenses on your headlights. Its fairly easy to do, and they'll cast more light. Enjoy the car and stay safe!

I had a similar situation years ago on an older Subie, and what I surmised happened is that as the bulbs age when one bulb burns out it ups the juice that the others on the same circuit get and they go soon afterwards. None of these bulbs have very big filaments so I'm guessing that they are pretty vulnerable to voltage/amperage fluctuations as they age. I'll bet that if you replaced all of them (on those 3 switches) at the same time with new ones that you'd no longer have problems. This is what I had to do with my old 97 OBW and I had no more burn outs.

I first ran across RedLine MT90 about 5 years ago on the TwinTurbo.net Forum for the Nissan 1990-1996 300zx's. These guys had been singing its praises for its ability to quieten the tranny and bring back the smooth like-new shifts. I was skeptical until I bought a 1954 MG TF with a really hard to shift without grinding tranny. I drained its fluid and did a refill with the MT90 and the tranny noise was entirely gone immediately. The shifting was greatly improved as was the frequency of the grinding while shifting. While the 50 year old tranny wasn't fixed entirely, one couldn't expect old technology to work like today's. I haven't had the need to put the RedLine in my ZX yet ( too few miles on the old girl ) I certainly will do so in the future when the need arises. The stuff is terrific.

If the seat heater harness exists in your vehicle, and I suspect that it does, it'll either be under the center console, or under the carpet alongside the rocker panel at the driver, and/or the passenger doors. It may be either taped up or zip-tied to another harness to keep it from rattling. Previous cars that I've swapped power seats, etc., into have been in these locations, but I've not specifically done so in a Subie. Pull the door threshold mouldings and lift up the carpet to locate the harness along the rockers, if you don't find what you're looking for under the console. Good Luck!

Say you buy the extended warranty and two weeks later some moron runs a red light and totals your car. Will the seller of the warranty give you your money back, or let you transfer the warranty to your replacement vehicle? The answer is no .... you are far better off putting the warranty money into a savings account, adding a small amount to it each month, and using the funds for future repairs if needed, or put it towards your next vehicle purchase.

JM1NA, The door glass is adjustable, unfortunately you have to remove the interior door panels to get at the window track adjusting points with a wrench. This isn't a difficult job to do, but rather a job of loosening the lock nut or bolt, move the track appropriately, and then retighten the lock nut. Its a trial and error type of job, but not beyond the adventurous DIYer. If in doubt, a good bodyshop can do the job in quick order. Good Luck!

I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but a clear liquid alongside the driver's wheel suspiciously suggests brake fluid. I'd be looking for the source of that leak sooner rather than later!